ThinkingAfield.org

FPC files appeal brief and seeks full-court review to overturn second-class legal standard blocking challenges to D.C.’s ban on common firearm magazines.

Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced today that it filed an opening brief and a petition for initial hearing en banc in its Wehr-Darroca v. District of Columbia appeal, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn decades-old precedent that treats Second Amendment challenges differently from other constitutional cases and keeps peaceable gun owners out of court.

At issue is Washington, D.C.’s ban on firearm magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds of ammunition. Violating the ban is a felony punishable by up to three years in prison and a $12,500 fine, with a conviction potentially triggering a federal lifetime ban on possessing firearms. FPC and two of its members, William Wehr-Darroca and Gary Stemple, challenged the law because it prohibits them from possessing the standard magazines that came with their handguns. To avoid prosecution, the members were forced to leave those magazines outside the District and purchase restricted-capacity replacements.

But rather than hear their constitutional challenge, the federal district court dismissed the case under D.C. Circuit precedent requiring a heightened showing of a specific threat of prosecution. Under that rule, law-abiding gun owners who want to exercise their rights but refuse to risk criminal prosecution can be denied the opportunity to challenge the very laws threatening them.

“D.C. threatens peaceable gun owners with felony prosecution and years in prison for possessing standard firearm magazines, then hides behind a court-created rule to deny them their day in court,” said FPC President Brandon Combs. “That is a disgraceful constitutional Catch-22. The government does not get to tell Americans they must either surrender their rights or risk prison just to challenge an unconstitutional law. The Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and gun owners are not second-class citizens. We’re demanding that the D.C. Circuit end this absurd exception, open the courthouse doors, and let us fight D.C.’s immoral magazine ban on the merits. FPC and our Grassroots Army will Fight Forward until these unconstitutional bans are eliminated everywhere.” Read more

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – In August, we celebrated one of the most impactful victories directly affecting suppressor ownership since the NFA was enacted in 1934. On October 9, the celebration returned following ATF’s announcement that it will no longer enforce the NFA’s requirements regarding making or transferring suppressors, short-barreled rifles (SBRs), short-barreled shotguns (SBSs) and “any other weapons” (AOWs).

Also, ATF will no longer enforce the requirement that these items be registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. According to ATF, these policies apply to anyone otherwise subject to these requirements, not just the plaintiffs in the litigation.

We fought, we won. Now, that victory belongs to every American, and we think that’s worth celebrating. Quietly, of course. Very, very quietly.

So what does this mean for Americans? Read more

Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced today a major victory in the FPC-supported case of Williams v. Blanche, where the en banc (full-court) U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the district court’s summary judgment holding that the federal government cannot constitutionally impose its lifetime gun ban on Edward Williams because of his decades-old, nonviolent DUI conviction.

Williams was convicted in 2005 of a Pennsylvania DUI offense that, because of an earlier DUI matter, was punishable by up to five years in prison and therefore triggered the federal prohibition in 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). His offense did not involve violence, physical injury, or a firearm. He served his sentence in home confinement, yet federal law purported to permanently prohibit him from possessing firearms for the rest of his life.

After years of litigation, the district court ruled for Williams in 2023, holding that the government had failed to demonstrate that permanently disarming him was consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. The federal government appealed. After a three-judge Third Circuit panel heard argument in 2025, the court took the unusual step of ordering rehearing en banc on its own initiative. The full court heard oral argument in February and now affirmed Williams’s victory.

“The federal government spent nearly a decade trying to permanently disarm a peaceable man over a nonviolent misdemeanor—and it lost bigly,” said FPC President Brandon Combs. “FPC has spent years building the historical record, litigating these cases, and briefing courts across the country to establish the correct rule: The government does not get to turn a nonviolent conviction into a lifetime ban on exercising a constitutionally protected right. Our strategy is paying off again. The Trump Administration would be better served working with us to end this immoral disarmament regime than fighting us and losing. Either way, FPC and our Grassroots Army will continue to Fight Forward until these unconstitutional lifetime bans are eliminated throughout the United States.” Read more